Guild Wars 2

Dredge Fractal / Frost gun door:
Last night someone in our PUG told us to halt freezing the door and deal with the adds at 50% door health (an easy trigger to remember since that’s when all the adds popup), before resuming going to work on the door. This worked remarkably perfectly and there were no wipes as a result.

Dredge Fractal / Bomb door:
What’s the best strategy here? Seems like we usually just take turns kamikaze-ing the door with bombs, using up whatever our skills are that keep us alive long enough to light the fuses before dying. Usually the team takes out the ‘stair’ mob group first so that 3-4 bomb runners have success on their first sortie, before that stair mob group respawns.

What’s the best way to handle this part of Dredge with respect to the mob respawnings?

Svanir Elemental Crystal fight: Veteran adds — to kill or not to kill?
This seems to cause a consensus split every time a group gets to this part, some saying “ignore the adds”, some saying " kill the adds xD". Some group members will also call to “stick together” while others will say “spread out”.

related Qs:
I’m guessing you should kill the Vet adds that are shooting at your team.. and ignore the ones behind the crystal that haven’t aggroed anyone yet?

Does another wave of vet adds spawn every time the group gets teleported into snowblindness?

Should the group all stick to one fire pit (and have all eggs in one basket) or split up into 2 (or more) fires, so that some of the vet adds dont even need to be bothered with?

Thanks!

New adds spawn at 50% on the door freezing version? I’ve only had that version once getting to level 21 and doing numerous tier 20 dailies. I’d like to better understand what you’re saying as to deal with that one when it comes up.

As for bomb/door. I find it best to have 1 or 2 dedicated bomb runners. The rest fight and take all the aggro. When you run out of bombs, everyone run to the bottom until more bombs respawn. I find this approach works well and I rarely have issues as long as people stick to the plan.

For the Ice Elemental, I prefer stay together and mostly ignore mobs. Staying together we only need to worry about 1 fire and the Vets AOE’s are easy to dodge. Plus if you stay together, you can quick res a downed man. Last thing you want is a dead man.

laharl.8435:

New adds spawn at 50% on the door freezing version? I’ve only had that version once getting to level 21 and doing numerous tier 20 dailies. I’d like to better understand what you’re saying as to deal with that one when it comes up.

yep, there seems to be a trigger such that at 50% of door ‘hp’ and again when door is destroyed, that a fresh wave of dredge spawns on top of you.

I didn’t realize this until last night and it made things alot easier.. At 50% (or you can just as easily tell by the popup of adds) and again at zero %, just run back down the ramp (or just fight them there) and the mobs are a lot easier to deal with. Thankfully they dont respawn on other than these two triggers, so it makes things more manageable.

And thank you for the input on the other fractal parts As for the bomb part, do a couple of the “non-runners” head up to the door to take aggro and bring those mobs back down the stairs, so that the 1-2 bomb runners don’t have to deal with aggro while by the door?

On bomb-run all just grab one bomb, plant and run back. Wait a bit. Repeat.

On ice-elemental it is much better kill adds than die (if you can manage without killing then don’t).

Wethospu.6437:

On bomb-run all just grab one bomb, plant and run back. Wait a bit. Repeat.

That usually doesn’t work, meaning at least someone dies, usually more than one. And then they’re surrounded by adds. At least from my experience

LemurTron.9261:

laharl.8435:

New adds spawn at 50% on the door freezing version? I’ve only had that version once getting to level 21 and doing numerous tier 20 dailies. I’d like to better understand what you’re saying as to deal with that one when it comes up.

yep, there seems to be a trigger such that at 50% of door ‘hp’ and again when door is destroyed, that a fresh wave of dredge spawns on top of you.

I didn’t realize this until last night and it made things alot easier.. At 50% (or you can just as easily tell by the popup of adds) and again at zero %, just run back down the ramp (or just fight them there) and the mobs are a lot easier to deal with. Thankfully they dont respawn on other than these two triggers, so it makes things more manageable.

And thank you for the input on the other fractal parts As for the bomb part, do a couple of the “non-runners” head up to the door to take aggro and bring those mobs back down the stairs, so that the 1-2 bomb runners don’t have to deal with aggro while by the door?

Yes, in my group we all go up there to get Dredge aggro. I run a shout heal/remove condition build so I stay close to runners to keep them healthy. We used to do the free-for-all everyone takes a bomb like the other guy said, but that’s when I usually see people die. Ever since we’ve been doing 1 or 2 bomb runners, it goes much smoother. But everyone has their preferences.

LemurTron.9261:

Wethospu.6437:

On bomb-run all just grab one bomb, plant and run back. Wait a bit. Repeat.

That usually doesn’t work, meaning at least someone dies, usually more than one. And then they’re surrounded by adds. At least from my experience

Then they die and we finish it up.

Wethospu.6437:

LemurTron.9261:

Wethospu.6437:

On bomb-run all just grab one bomb, plant and run back. Wait a bit. Repeat.

That usually doesn’t work, meaning at least someone dies, usually more than one. And then they’re surrounded by adds. At least from my experience

Then they die and we finish it up.

yeah thats usually what happens.. a wipe once the door is blown and the adds stop respawning. But those adds respawn indefinitely (dont they?) prior to the door blowing up, so looking for a less-wipish strategy. Or one where 5 players takes on the final mobs rather than 1-3, which takes a little longer, if a wipe isn’t ‘needed’

basically a zero-death plan would be ideal xD, ala the freeze door tactic

I meant whoever dies stays dead while alive people finish it up. At least on level 25 it’s not awfully hard with defensive utilities.

In the 20s im only about 50/50 with my mesmer getting back alive. Even with portal, invis, speed bump, decoy, and a couple distortion shatters, I get chomped sometimes before getting pack through portal, depending on how many aggro followers. Though my build is pure dps too.

Anyway, i hear ya. That situation is doable and works ‘ok’, I just wonder if the 1-2 dedicated runner bit might speed things up overall. Not really a big deal just looking for optimum method

laharl.8435:

New adds spawn at 50% on the door freezing version? I’ve only had that version once getting to level 21 and doing numerous tier 20 dailies. I’d like to better understand what you’re saying as to deal with that one when it comes up.

Yea, when you shoot the door down to 50% more adds spawn, I guess your just lucky that didn’t happen to you, unless you like leave an add alive or something.

laharl.8435:

As for bomb/door. I find it best to have 1 or 2 dedicated bomb runners. The rest fight and take all the aggro. When you run out of bombs, everyone run to the bottom until more bombs respawn. I find this approach works well and I rarely have issues as long as people stick to the plan.

Pretty much this, and you can always farm some dredge by pulling them away from the bottom of the steps while you wait for bombs to respawn.

laharl.8435:

For the Ice Elemental, I prefer stay together and mostly ignore mobs. Staying together we only need to worry about 1 fire and the Vets AOE’s are easy to dodge. Plus if you stay together, you can quick res a downed man. Last thing you want is a dead man.

Depends on the party, if the party can survive with ease, ignore, if not, kill a couple, they go down pretty fast as long as you FF them.

Ok, we tried a little different approach to the Ice Elemental last night and it ended up being my easiest fight versus him yet. We still stayed together. Basically we had two guys dedicated to fighting vets when they were aggro’d while the other 3 of us kept on the Ice Elemental. There were no deaths and only one knockdown. This was only one battle so it could’ve just been an anomaly, but I’ll try it again when it comes up.

If you get a thief he can solo the bomb door without getting a hit mostly. 2-3 bombs per running in. For the other door: full dmg on the door and as soon as the mobs spawn – shadow refuge which lasts long enough for the rest of the door.
Well, if you didn’t got a thief (can’t happen to me :p) you need to care about the adds at both doors. Mesmers can help as well with stealth.

For ice frac:
You can ignore the vets at first 20 lvls but if you get higher, kill all you have aggro. Its not only their AoE that hurts, the single attack isn’t that weak as well esp if you got 4 or more mobs (higher number of respawn at higher lvls). It’s more safe to kill all of them. Depending on the party HP and the amount of mobs you can skip the 3rd respawn at 25% HP of the crystal left.
Sticking together is better here, as said the dmg rises and it happens more often that sometimes is downed. Also reflect/absorb walls work this way better. Pulling mobs together via guardian/mesmer helps a lot as well (better AoE usage)

Shini.7542:

If you get a thief he can solo the bomb door without getting a hit mostly. 2-3 bombs per running in. For the other door: full dmg on the door and as soon as the mobs spawn – shadow refuge which lasts long enough for the rest of the door.
Well, if you didn’t got a thief (can’t happen to me :p) you need to care about the adds at both doors. Mesmers can help as well with stealth.

For ice frac:
You can ignore the vets at first 20 lvls but if you get higher, kill all you have aggro. Its not only their AoE that hurts, the single attack isn’t that weak as well esp if you got 4 or more mobs (higher number of respawn at higher lvls). It’s more safe to kill all of them. Depending on the party HP and the amount of mobs you can skip the 3rd respawn at 25% HP of the crystal left.
Sticking together is better here, as said the dmg rises and it happens more often that sometimes is downed. Also reflect/absorb walls work this way better. Pulling mobs together via guardian/mesmer helps a lot as well (better AoE usage)

nice re: the thief

For the ice elemental, does a new wave of mobs come at 75%, 50% and 25% of ice crystal health (in tandem to the snowblind teleport)?

I’m assuming your advice to kill all the mobs is because those that are ‘behind’ the crystal initially might end up joining the fight after a new wave of mobs appears and the party looks to gather near a fire after the snowblind teleport? They do start to hit hard..

laharl.8435:

Ok, we tried a little different approach to the Ice Elemental last night and it ended up being my easiest fight versus him yet. We still stayed together. Basically we had two guys dedicated to fighting vets when they were aggro’d while the other 3 of us kept on the Ice Elemental. There were no deaths and only one knockdown. This was only one battle so it could’ve just been an anomaly, but I’ll try it again when it comes up.

that makes a lot of sense

LemurTron.9261:

I’m assuming your advice to kill all the mobs is because those that are ‘behind’ the crystal initially might end up joining the fight after a new wave of mobs appears and the party looks to gather near a fire after the snowblind teleport? They do start to hit hard..

cleaned places will respawn for sure, never watched closer to non cleaned spawns but I think there will be at least 1 extra mob per respawn.
Normally it should be 2 vets per fire place (5 in total) but there were already spots with 3 or 4 if not cleaned before though. 1 Person that got an unlucky teleport and it can be a dangerous way back to group (walking left/right around the houses can help to not aggro everything – if you got enough HP left to do that).
At least if you dont want to clean all of the points, clean at least the place left and right of you – those can be easily aggroed if you get knockbacked / dont watch your steps. Bouncing attacks might pull some more mobs as well by accident (mages light hit, thiefs shortbow, rangers axe.. for sure other things as well like pets, illusions, badly placed aoes etc.)

Normally we take the right fire after entering as the group place and regroup there. Personal Waypoint (alt + leftclick on minimap) can help to find the way back for persons that forget those things easy.

For the Dredge door (in both scenarios), if you have a Thief, they will trivialise this part with stealth. Otherwise, you need to dedicate a couple of runners/gunners while aggro is managed by the rest of the team. It’s not too bad. Essentially, as soon as the frost door is blown, the entire team just runs away and the Dredge that spawned will go away when they have no aggro. For the bomb door, if someone has died, then we just wipe.

For the Ice elemental part, I say it depends entirely on aggro. Before we get to each 25% of the boss’ health, we target the fire we’re standing near so we know where to run when we’re teleported. As soon as we’re moved, we rush straight back to where we were and huddle close while we wait for the vision to clear. We usually put down all our defensive skills and reflections, since the red circles and projectiles are quite hard to pick out. When that clears, if there’s only a few elementals that have aggroed, I (Thief) and our Guardian will kill them while the rest keep whittling down the boss. If there’s more than say, five, we just target them and get them out of the way.

Shadow Refuge (thief) or portal (mesmer) work quite well for bombing the door. My main is a thief on level 21, my mesmer is on level 11. I’m not sure of other tactics since I haven’t thought about it since my groups use these tactics since I’m capable of both options.